Climb Away
by EmeraldEuphoria
Summary: Whenever Brittany needed to think, or get away from everything, she'd go to the park and climb this particular tree. She said it made her feel safe; being all the way up there; it made her feel like she could just fly away if she wanted. So when Santana got a call from Tina telling her that Brittany went missing, she knew exactly where to find her.


**Disclaimer: **I don't own Glee or any of its characters. Isn't that sad?

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Santana was running late for her biology class. She's so late that she was actually running to the building where her class is.

_Was_ being the key word.

She's now sitting pathetically in the cafeteria after having reached the building only to realize that she was at the wrong one; her biology class is in the building across campus. So she'd thought _screw it, I'm already thirty minutes late_ and decided that missing one class wouldn't do much harm.

She sighed into her coffee, bored out of her mind, when her phone started ringing.

She looked at the caller ID and rolled her eyes, "What do you want, Girl-Chang?"

"Well, hello to you too, Santana," Tina said sarcastically, "I'm doing excellent, thank you for asking. And you?"

Santana chuckled, "Hi, Tina, I'm so happy you're doing well. Whatever did you call me for?"

Tina hesitated, "Actually, the thing is… I'm sure it's not serious but… Um…"

Santana rolled her eyes, "Spit it out, T."

"Brittany's missing!" Tina said in one breath.

A beat.

"Missing as in…?"

Tina swallowed thickly, "As in no one has seen or heard from her in two days…"

"And her parents have said what?"

Tina started getting nervous at the monotone quality Santana was speaking in, "She told them she was sleeping over at Sugar's."

Santana put her coffee down on the table and stood up, collecting her things and fishing her car key out of her bag, "One question; why has no one bothered to call and tell me that my girlfriend is nowhere to be found?"

"Santana…" Tina all but whined, "You know how Brittany is; she does weird things sometimes, we didn't think it was important, or serious."

Santana nodded and tried to keep her temper in check, "If she's hurt, so help me…"

Tina coughed, "I… Are you coming?" she asked when the sound of a car's engine reached her over the phone.

"What do you think? My girlfriend is missing, am I supposed to wait for you Neanderthals to find her?"

XXX

Santana reached Lima in record time. It wasn't because she thought Brittany was actually hurt or lost –she knew better – but it did make her feel bad that something had happened to her girlfriend to make her do this. She hasn't needed her "Climb Time" in a really long time.

Oh, you must be confused.

Whenever Brittany needed to think, or get away from everything, she'd go to the park – deep in – and climb this particular tree. She said it made her feel safe; being all the way up there; it made her feel like she could just fly away if she wanted. She used to go there a lot when her dad was diagnosed with lung cancer. And even more so during their junior year.

Yeah, Brittany would stay there for days-on-end. Her longest record was a full week where she had told Santana that she was going to visit her grandma, back in middle school. Santana was busy missing her best friend when the Pierce's called, frantically asking if Santana had seen their little girl. It took Santana three hours to find her. Brittany was sad because her cat (Bob) had died.

Santana sighed, and parked her car in the near empty parking lot.

XXX

"What are you doing up there, Little Birdie?" Santana softly called to Brittany.

The blonde looked down and smiled when her eyes landed on Santana, "Thinking," she waved her hand at Santana to climb up.

Santana sighed, she was dreading this part of the whole thing; she hated climbing. Probably because she sucked at it.

It took her a good ten minutes – where it usually took Brittany two – to reach the highest branch, where her girlfriend was. She plopped down, panting.

"God, I have no idea how you can handle all this climbing," she was still breathing hard.

Brittany chuckled – sadly, Santana noted –, "How are you so out of shape?"

Santana huffed, indignant, "Excuse me? What are you implying?"

"Just that you were on the Cheerios, under coach Sue's training, for four years and now you're on another cheerleading squad and you still can barely climb this little old tree," she shrugged.

Santana rolled her eyes playfully, "Whatever."

They sat in comfortable silence. Brittany was looking up at the sky, and Santana was looking at Brittany.

Santana wondered what had happened to make her usually bubbly and happy girlfriend look so damn sad. She wondered what had happened to make her usually bright blue eyes look so dull and tired. She wondered what had happened because she needed to know what to do to fix it.

"Wanna tell me what's wrong, Birdie?"

Brittany sighed, "Not really…"

Santana ignored the stab of pain those two words brought, "Baby, what's wrong?" she asked, taking Brittany's hand in both of her own.

Brittany turned to look at the girl next to her, noticing the little pain she was trying to hide – pain that she caused –, "I'm sorry, I'm just really tired."

Santana shook her apology off, "It's okay."

"I was in the choir room waiting for Finn and the others to get there," she looked down at both of their hands intertwined, "I was early, so I was alone. Then Kitty came…"

"_Hi, Kitty," Brittany exclaimed, smiling at the younger girl._

_Kitty smiled – but it looked a little fake to Brittany –, "Hi, Britt, how are you?" she asked, sitting down next to the other Cheerio._

_Brittany shrugged, "Okay, I guess. I've been doing okay in sch–"_

"_Yeah," kitty interrupted, "How's your relationship with Lespez going?"_

_Brittany frowned, "Her last name is Lopez… and it's fine," her frown was replaced with a smile when thoughts of her beautiful girlfriend came to mind._

_Kitty sighed, shaking her head, "I don't think so, Britt…"_

"_What do you mean?"_

_Brittany couldn't keep up with kitty's response. She heard her say a bunch of things; stuff about long distance and cheating and no supervision and poor judgment and secrets and shame and not being worth it and giving up._

"_Okay, Kitty," Brittany touched Kitty's forearm to stop her rant, "I'm touched that you're worried, but I wouldn't cheat on Santana, and long distance isn't a problem," she smiled, "Besides, Santana, and this relationship, mean the world to me; they're worth everything,"_

_Kitty raised an eyebrow, then threw her head back and started laughing – Brittany felt she was being laughed at –, "Oh, please! You think I was talking about that?" she shook her head, a smirk on her lips, "I was saying that Lespez is probably up there in Kentucky screwing everything with boobs walking around, and that with the distance, she probably figured you're not worth it, sweetie,"_

"Then Artie and Tina c-came in…" Brittany was blinking fast against the tears threatening to fall, "And she stopped talking…"

Santana felt rage well up inside of her, "Brittany, you don't believe her, do you?"

Brittany took a shuddering breath, "I don't, but she's not lying either; Santana, I repeated senior year… I'm not worth it, not worth you…"

Santana put her hands on the blonde's cheeks, "Okay, look at me, Britt," she waited until her request was met, "I love you," her thumbs were quick to wipe the tears that started to fall, "Whether you repeated senior year or not, that will never change," she leaned forward to place a soft kiss on quivering lips, "I love you and you are worth everything to me. I waited years to get to call you mine, and I'm not throwing that away for anyone with 'boobs walking around', got it?"

Brittany nodded, "So… you never thought about it…?"

"No." Santana's reply was simple, straightforward, and made Brittany surge forward to connect their lips.

Pulling back, Brittany wiped any remaining tears from her face, "I love you too," she took a deep breath and smiled shakily, "Can you not hurt Kitty too much? I know she's a bitch, but you're an adult now and can get arrested,"

Santana pouted, "I promise nothing,"

Brittany laughed at the adorableness of her "badass" girlfriend, "Let's get down, San."

XXX

Tina's eyes widened in surprise, "What are you doing here?"

Santana shrugged, "I have some unfinished business to attend to," she gave the now confused girl a hug, "Where can I find the little bag of bat-shit crazy that is Kitty?"

Tina frowned, "Why?"

Santana smiled as innocently as she could, "I need to have a little chat with her,"

XXX

The Cheerios in the locker room jumped at the loud slamming of the door, and when they saw who it was, they all scrambled to get out. All, but one.

Santana waited until Kitty fixed her uniform before speaking, "Hi, Kitty."

The girl in question jumped at the sickly sweet voice and turned around quickly, "Santana! Hi…"

"Don't you mean 'Lespez'? Or is that just what you call me in front of Brittany?"

Swallowing, Kitty breathed a shaky laugh, "I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about…"

Nodding, Santana moved until she was a breath away from the younger girl, "I swear to god, if you so much as breathe in Brittany's direction ever again, I will personally make sure you never be able to pull a single dance move ever again, go it?"

Kitty, visibly pale, nodded.

Santana walked forward until Kitty's back hit the lockers, "And trust me, Sue would let me. Actually, if she hears about what you'd said to Britt, she'd end you; she always did have a soft spot for her."

And with a glare, Santana left the locker room and headed to her car; she'd already missed two days of classes. But before she drove back to school, she pulled out her phone and sent a text.

_Dealt w/ Miss Crazy! Xoxo –S_

She started the car while she waited for the response she knew was coming.

_I'm totally rolling my eyes rn, San! What did u say to her? I just saw her and she ran the other way… -B _

Santana giggled as she typed her message.

_I love you!_ Xoxo ;) –S

_I love you too, you silly girl xoxo –B _

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**A/N:** So? what did you think?

I wrote this because I couldn't get this other story out!

I have the outline all done, but I can't seem to manage to execute it right :(

Anyway, you know what this and my story 'Falling Hurts' made me realize? I SUCK at "text-talk"! Seriously, I don't shorten anything, I use commas and periods and correct grammar... Totally does not help when attempting to write it in fanfics... I'm ashamed to call myself a teenager! Appalled even!

Like always, all mistakes are mine! I will come back some time to re-check everything!

Review telling me what you liked, didn't like, what I could improve and all that jazzzz! :D

Cheers!


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